DOMINICAN COLLEGE OF TARLAC

Capas, Tarlac

COLLEGE DEPARTMENT
A.Y. 2021-2022 FIRST SEMESTER
OBE FACULTY-DESIGNED MODULE
I. Subject: Quality Service for Hospitality and Tourism

II. Learning Outcomes:

a. Understand the process of recruiting staff for the hospitality organizations.

III. Topic/Lesson: Staffing for Service

IV. Days of Learning Sessions: Monday and Wednesday

V. Delivery

Lesson Starter:

1. Motivation Phase

1.1. Pre-assessment Activity (Collaboration):

2. Presentation Phase:
The 3-A Approach

2.1. ANALYSIS (Communication):

THE MANY EMPLOYEES OF THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY
Providing either a tangible or an intangible service product requires many different employees
doing many different jobs. Most obvious are the front-of-house employees who interact with the
guest. They are directly responsible for providing the value and quality of an exceptional
experience because they are the interface between the guests and the company. Back-of-house
employees or what is sometimes called the heart of the house help create the service
experience. They fix the rides, cook the meals, clean the sheets, and so forth so that the guest’s
experience meets or exceeds expectations.

2.2. ABSTRACTION (Critical Thinking)

Serving the Guests
While many people are involved in the delivery of any service experience, it is the frontline or
customer-contact employee, with whom the guest interacts, that has the most direct influence.
This employee—the front desk agent, the restaurant server, the character at a theme park, the
driver of the bus, the flight attendant—is frequently the one that can turn a guest experience into
a wow that is memorable. This can be done in a variety of ways, but one way is to add something
extra and unexpected to the experience.
Supporting the Service
If employees are to deliver excellent service, there must be something excellent to deliver in the
first place. And just as guest-contact employees must have the right abilities and motivation to
interact appropriately and engagingly with guests, so employees in noncontact positions must
have the right abilities and motivation to do their jobs if an excellent service experience is going
to result.
For example, Spain’s El Bulli is considered by some to be the best restaurant in the world.
It is open only seven months a year, the dining room had fewer than 50 seats, and there is only
one seating per night. The restaurant claimed to receive over a million reservations a year but
accommodated only about 8000 diners in a single season. And yet the dining experience was
supported by over 40 chefs. The guest might interact directly with only a few employees (e.g.,
maitre’d, server, wine steward), and while those employees provide exceptional service, they
were not what made the restaurant so special.
The Role of the Manager
Hospitality is such a labor-intensive industry that there must also be managers to supervise,
coach, and coordinate the many employees doing the different jobs. Supervisors and managers
have a number of important roles, from checking employees’ work to creating work schedules,
supplying necessary equipment and supplies, providing training, and conducting performance
evaluations. Yet managers in service firms are faced with very different issues than managers in
product-producing firms.
For example, managers in service firms have to rely on subjective assessments, such as
customer satisfaction and loyalty, to determine the effectiveness of their decisions and their
employees’ behaviors. Furthermore, the simultaneous production and consumption of services
makes the hospitality managerial role complex and difficult to spell out. In addition to their
administrative responsibilities, hospitality managers are held accountable for success on
qualitative measures, and often perform a customer-service role as well.
LOVING TO SERVE
When one comes across employees who deliver exceptional customer service experiences, they
really stand out. Scott Gross calls these people “service naturals” because they instinctively give
great service when provided the opportunity. These are the employees who can change a regular
interaction into something special that the guest will both appreciate and remember. Through this
experience, the server connects with the guest in a way that builds a relationship.
The selection process, in theory, is straightforward. First, figure out exactly what you are looking
for; second, recruit a pool of good candidates; third, select the best in the pool; fourth, bring the
best candidates on board; fifth, make the new hires feel welcome; and sixth, manage any potential
future turnover of employees strategically. Each step requires a number of critical decisions.
THE FIRST STEP: STUDY THE JOB
Human Resource Planning
Human resource planning is the process of analyzing an organization’s current human resource
capabilities and the organization’s human resource needs that are required to meet organizational
objectives. Based on your organizational strategy, you must determine what knowledge, skills,
and abilities (KSAs) employees must possess to accomplish your goals, what levels of KSAs
currently exist in your organization, and how you expect both your organization and people to
develop over time.
Job Analysis
A careful, thorough job analysis allows the organization to identify the exact job specifications
and required competencies for each job classification and type. A job analysis will tell you if you
need physically strong people to assist park visitors into a ride, skilled lifeguards to keep people
safe in the water parks, or multilingual people to speak to foreign guests.
Study Your Best Performers
Instead of identifying the KSAs that particular jobs seem to require or will require in the future,
this approach starts by defining the KSAs of currently successful employees. In essence, this is
benchmarking against your own very best practitioners of the job. The idea is that if you hire only
employees who have traits, skills, abilities, tendencies, talents, and personality characteristics
that are similar to those found in the current strong job performers, they should be more successful
than new employees who don’t have those same characteristics.
Develop Talent Profiles
The idea here is to look at an organization’s strong performers and, based on their talents, develop
talent profiles for each major job category. Then, they use these benchmark profiles to screen
new applicants.
Other Key Characteristics for Service Personnel
While certain KSAs or competencies can be identified for a specific job, there are some known
characteristics that are needed by employees who are actually serving customers, clients, or
guests. One is enthusiasm. To provide exceptional service, guest-contact employees must have
an enthusiastic approach to life. Enthusiasm is contagious, and guests come to most hospitality
organizations expecting to be served by employees who are enthusiastic about the service itself,
the organization, and the opportunity to provide service.
Enthusiastic employees show their enthusiasm in many ways, but one important way is to put on
a “show” for their guests.
Employing servers who interact with guests in this way creates a competitive advantage since no
competitor can design into its service experience the same feeling of a unique and personalized
show for the guest that the well-selected, well-trained, enthusiastic employee can. The opportunity
to provide a show for the guest is a terrific opportunity for properly selected employees to show
their enthusiasm in a fun way.
Employees with guest-contact responsibilities should demonstrate an authentic sense of concern
for their guests. They must be upbeat, cheerful, enthusiastic, and genuinely interested in serving
the guest, even when the guest is not reciprocally positive and even when they themselves don’t
feel upbeat or positive.
 This requires them to engage in emotional labor, which can be just as tiring as physical
labor. When hiring individuals into customer-contact roles, companies must select individuals with
the ability to not only do their jobs but also make a connection with guests in an emotional
relationship. Putting on a happy face when you yourself are having a bad day is difficult. When
employees’ true emotions are not consistent with the types of emotions the company and the
customer want them to display, they can act in one of two ways: surface acting, where they
modify their facial expressions, or deep acting, where they modify their inner feelings.
Finally, because service employees will be interacting with the guests, they should also
be polite, considerate, and willing to make a genuine effort to help other people. For example,
during the hiring process, observe how candidates treat the receptionist before the interview. To
put these general abilities together would lead to selecting someone who has the ability to handle
emotional labor, can put on a consistent show in front of guests, cares about the quality of the
performance and the guest’s reaction to it, and does it all with gusto.
THE SECOND STEP: RECRUIT A POOL OF QUALIFIED CANDIDATES
Hiring Internal Candidates
Many companies prefer internal recruitment for several reasons. In fact, the practice of hiring from
within is often seen as a best practice of human resource management.
The Known Quantity
The most important advantage of promoting from within is that you have much more information—
and more accurate information—about your current employees than you do about external
candidates.
Internal Equity
The second reason for internal hiring is internal equity. Many hospitality organizations employ
people from varied backgrounds and with different levels of training and education. Many
employees, except those in some technical areas and those with unique qualifications and
experience, start at the same entry-level point. Each has an equal opportunity to prove a
commitment to service excellence if they wish to get promoted.
Experience
Most people, as just mentioned, start in the hospitality industry by taking entry-level jobs.
Companies want their employees to know the business from the ground up.
Knowing the Culture
Organizations like to promote internal candidates because much of the training in the
organizational culture has already been done. Internal candidates already know the company’s
beliefs and values and have proven themselves to be comfortable in that culture.
Lower Cost
Internal recruitment also has the general advantage of reducing costs. There is no need to pay
for advertisements and travel expenses of candidates to be interviewed, and the decision often
requires less time, which saves money.
Internal Search Strategies
A pool of internal candidates can be created in one of two ways: job postings or a review of
personnel records. Many organizations announce open positions to employees via a company
Intranet, bulletin boards, newsletters, or other means of communication.
Hiring External Candidates
A company’s internal labor pool is almost always smaller than the total labor pool. In some
circumstances, looking outside the company for new employees has a number of advantages.
New Ideas and Fresh Perspectives
One problem with hiring internally—which usually involves promotions and transfers—is that it
limits the diversity of experience of the candidate population.
Difficulties with Internal Candidates
The company that promotes from within often promotes its best line-level employees into
supervisory or managerial roles but good line-level employees do not always make good
managers, nor do all of them want to become managers.
Specific Skills and Knowledge
While hiring from within can be a means to motivate and retain lower-level staff interested in a
promotion, external candidates may be desirable when a needed ability or combination of abilities
in a specific job is unavailable among existing employees.
External Search Strategies
Advertising
A message containing general information about the job and the organization is placed in various
media, such as newspapers, radio, and television.
Associations and Unions
Many occupations have state, regional, or national associations that hold meetings, publish
newsletters, and represent the interests of the occupation.
Colleges and Secondary Schools
Organization members are sent to colleges and schools to meet with individuals or groups of
students to provide specific information about the organization or their jobs and to answer any
questions
Employee Referral Programs
When using this word of mouth technique, employees are provided with information about job
openings and asked to refer individuals to the company.
Employment Agencies
The firm contacts an organization whose main purpose is to locate job seekers.
Employment Events, Job Fairs, Career Fairs
These events are specially organized to attract a large number of potential candidates to a specific
location on a certain day, who are then interviewed for jobs.
The Internet
The firm can either post information about open positions on its own Web site or contract with an
Internet recruiting service.
Temporary Employment Firms
Companies sometimes need to fill short-term positions that do not warrant commitment of
resources to recruit, select, and train people.
Walk-Ins
Unsolicited individuals sometimes initiate contact with the organization.
Public Advertising
Although there is much discussion of how the Internet is replacing print media, help-wanted
advertisements are still a very common method for advertising job openings. Almost all
newspapers still print help-wanted ads in the traditional way in which they have been printed for
decades.
Niches
Targeting specific segments of the labor market to identify potential employees is another
recruiting strategy.
Professional Networks and Placement Services
Successful hospitality managers join professional organizations to find both good employees and
good ideas about how to find good employees.
Student Recruiting
An important strategy for finding the many people that the hospitality industry needs is student
recruiting. A number of programs develop pools of potential employees among young people who
are either still in school or have recently graduated.
Employee Referrals
Another large and successful source of employees for many hospitality organizations is referrals
by current employees.
Employers of Choice
A company’s reputation can also aid in recruitment. These employers are characterized as being
good places to work, where the organization makes efforts to create and maintain a humane and
respectful workplace.
Call-Back File
Usually, there are more applicants than positions. Companies can call unsuccessful applicants
back several months later to see if they are still interested.
The Final Applicant Pool
No matter how the set of applicants is acquired—through internal selection, via a job posting
system, using the Internet, or through public advertising—the selection decision will come down
to two factors. First, how choosy can the company be in the selection process; and second, how
well can the employee’s performance be predicted.
THE THIRD STEP: SELECT THE BEST CANDIDATE
With a pool of applicants assembled, the next step is to determine who will be hired into the
company. The selection process sounds disarmingly simple: figure out what an ideal candidate
looks like, collect information on potential candidates, and then select the person who best
matches the ideal.
Screening and Evaluating Applicants
Once you know what you want in a candidate, you must collect information on your applicants to
make the best hiring decision.
The Application Form
Application forms are the first screen an employer should use in deciding whom to hire.
The Interview
If the applicant passes the initial screen, the organization will most likely schedule an interview to
determine if the information on the application checks out.
Not surprisingly, the accuracy of an interview is largely determined by how well it is planned and
how consistently it is used. When interviewers make up questions as they go along, have no
predetermined way to score applicants, or rely purely on their memory, they are conducting what
is called an unstructured interview.
Structured Interviews
Structured interview will include questions that address past experiences, work competencies,
willingness to do the job as designed, and commitment to service.
In the hospitality industry, behavioral interviews are often the most effective way to assess
applicant’s qualifications on critical criteria. Behavioral interviewing is based on trying to
specifically evaluate some instances of past performance to help predict future performance.
Depending on the pool of applicants, companies may want to employ situational interviews. Like
behavioral interviews, situational interviews aim to assess performance, but they involve
hypothetical situations rather than actual past experiences.
Work Competencies
The second group of questions that should be included in a structured interview are those related
to work competencies.
Doing the Job as Designed The third part of a structured interview should assess the candidate’s
willingness to do the job as it is designed.
Commitment to Service
For positions with customer contact, interviewers will want to include questions that help to assess
each applicant’s commitment to service.
Psychological Tests
Tests of mental ability measure logical reasoning, intelligence, conceptual foresight, ability to spot
semantic relationships, spatial organization, memory span, and a number of other cognitive
factors.
Personality Traits
Managers often talk about hiring the right type of person for a job, or someone with the right
disposition.
Cognitive Ability While many managers think personality is the best predictor of job
performance, in fact, decades of research has shown that cognitive ability may be the best.
Integrity Tests Integrity tests predict the predisposition of job applicants to engage in theft, drug
taking, and dishonest or otherwise disruptive work behaviors.
Assessment Centers
An assessment center is a battery of tests that are used to measure the KSAs of a group of
individuals.
References, Background Checks, and Drug Tests
It is also a fairly common practice to check a candidate’s references. This may involve soliciting
letters of recommendation, calling former employers, or requesting from candidates names of
individuals who can attest to their character.
THE FOURTH STEP: HIRE THE BEST APPLICANT
After all the information has been collected on potential applicants, selecting the right people from
the applicants becomes the next critical step, in ensuring that the company gets the employees
who will provide the level of service that the organization expects.
THE FIFTH STEP: MAKE THE NEW HIRE FEEL WELCOME
On-boarding should be designed to ensure that the new hire feels genuinely welcomed.
THE SIXTH STEP: TURNOVER—SELECTING PEOPLE OUT OF AN ORGANIZATION
While selection is usually considered as the process of choosing employees from a pool of
applicants, turnover can also be seen as selection of a sort. While those acquired are selected
into the company, those leaving the company are essentially “selected out” of the company’s
workforce.
Turnover can be costly for organizations. Direct costs are associated with the selection of a
replacement for a departing employee, namely the cost of advertising for an opening, processing
applications, and conducting background checks
Turnover also has an important indirect cost: the cost of disappointed customers. Guests
frequently build relationships with servers, and being served again and again by the same person
is part of the value they receive from an organization’s guest experience.
EMPLOYING THE BEST TO SERVE YOUR GUESTS
To provide excellent service, the organization needs employees with the right knowledge, skills,
abilities, and attitudes. To get the right people, the company needs to know what to look for, where
to look to recruit talented workers, and the right ways to collect the information on job applicants.
Successful staffing depends on a clear understanding of what the jobs require and of the personal
characteristics that lead to success in these positions.

2.3. APPLICATION (Creativity):

Case study
Choosing a Manager
The director of management development for the Long Stay Suites was required to recommend
someone for a high-level management position in the company. Careful screening of all present
employees narrowed the selection to two men: John Jarvis and Satya Patel. After lengthy
interviews, the following information was accumulated. John Jarvis had a tenure of three years
with the company. He was very seldom absent from work and had obtained a college degree in
hospitality administration by taking evening courses. His superiors rated his management
potential as promising. The one complaint voiced against him was that he appeared impatient
and overly ambitious. During his interview with the director of management development, Jarvis
indicated that promotions had not come along fast enough for him and that unless he received
this promotion, he would seek employment with another major hospitality organization. He hinted
that he had received offers. Satya Patel was several years older than Jarvis. He had been with
the company since graduation from a nearby university six years previously. He was rated by his
superiors as a steady, dependable employee, apparently very intelligent, but he had been given
little opportunity to display his talent. Three years ago, he had turned down a more responsible
position at one of the organization’s branches in another city. He said he didn’t want to relocate,
and the job required some traveling. Since that time, he had not been given another opportunity
to move upward in the organization. In considering the recommendation he would make; the
director of managerial development recalled a comment Patel had made during his interview: “I’m
confident that you will recognize the importance of seniority when you make your final
recommendation.” ***
1. Weigh the pros and cons of promoting Jarvis or Patel.
2. Which one would you recommend for the position, and why?
3. Ideally, what additional information would you like to have before making a recommendation?

3. Assessment Phase:
3.1. Work Activities
1. Assume that you are in a tight-labor market for entry-level employees.
a. Do any of the recruitment strategies described in the chapter seem more or less
appropriate under those circumstances?
b. What innovative ideas do you have that might improve your ability to recruit
outstanding entry-level employees.
 2. Recruiting applicant is only half the task.
a. Indicate techniques you would use to select those you want to hire.
b. Assume that you are hiring a server for casual-dining restaurant. What KSAs would
you look for?
c. Assume that you are hiring a hotel front desk agent. What KSAs would you look for?
d. Are the front desk agent KSAs is different from those for the restaurant server?
e. What problem-solving skills would you look for in either type of candidate?

3.2. Take Home Tasks

Read with comprehension the next lesson
VI. References
Ford, R. C., Sturman, M. C., & Heaton, C. P. (2012). Managing quality service in
hospitality: How organizations achieve excellence in the guest experience. Clifton
Park, New York: Delmar Cengage Learning.